"MAP-21 will further support Capital Metro's strategic plan to provide a high-quality, modern transportation system that meets the needs of our growing region," Capital Metro President/CEO Linda S. Watson says.

Passage of the bi-partisan bill went down to the wire. President Obama signed it on Friday.

Cap Metro Preps Layoffs in Labor Transition; Says Most Employees Will Be Offered Jobs Capital Metro is laying off more than 800 union employees as it prepares to outsource those jobs to two contractors . The transit agency says the union workers will be offered jobs under the new operators, as long as they can pass driving and drug tests. More than 50 supervisors are also being laid off. They are not part of the union so they are not guaranteed new jobs, but will be given first consideration, Cap Metro says.

New signs are in place at Capital Metro bus stops around town. But instead of a list of times, they feature an identification number for that specific stop, and information on how to learn more about the next bus arrival. The signs include a quick response (QR) code , which people can scan with their smartphones to open a mobile website containing upcoming arrival times for that individual spot. Its a technological step forward for Capital Metro, which is in the process of installing site-specific signs at each of its 2,700 bus stops around Austin. However, the times Capital Metro displays are the set, static times the transportation agency displays in their schedule books. Real-time information on bus arrivals and departures are still some two years away, the agency says.

Capital Metro announced today that it has received $38 million from the Federal Transit Administration to help cover the cost of the MetroRapid program. The funds come from the administrations Very Small Start program and will cover about 80 percent of the programs $48 million cost, said Linda Watson, the president and CEO of Capital Metro. Thats tax money that Texans pay coming back to Texas, Watson said. So its a great day not only for Capital Metro and our customers, but for Central Texas and taxpayers in the whole state of Texas.